A NOTE TO MY READERS

 There will be a hiatus in my blog posting as I am preparing to self-publish my e-book Javelin Joe's Reflections: Confessions of a Sojourner and Pilgrim on this Planet. I plan on this being available by Labor Day with the paperback and hard cover editions by Christmas. 

A TRIBUTE TO JENNIFER JANE: BIRTH, LIFE, AND DEATH OF OUR BELOVED DARLING DAUGHTER

Jennifer Jane was born on June 29, 1974, at Fort Riley Kansas. At the time I was a young soldier stationed at the base. For two weeks prior to Jennifer’s birth, I was with fellow members of First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City teaching in our children’s Vacation Bible School (VBS). VBS, because of its size, was held that year in Lincoln Elementary School which was not air conditioned which became a challenge to all attending- adults, youth, and children alike- because of the heat inherent in prairie summers. In fact, 1974 proved to be one of the hottest recorded in Kansas history which after Jennifer’s birth had 18 straight days of over 100 degrees.

I came home the evening of Friday June 28 to our small apartment in the extreme southern portion of Junction City which overlooked Interstate 70 announcing to my wife Karen that I was tired and was looking forward to sleeping on Saturday morning. Our baby (no gender reveals beforehand in those days) was not due until Jully 2 so we both figured that I had time to recoup my energy before our baby’s arrival. But our darling daughter-to-be had other ideas.  All through the night Karen’s contractions became closer and closer until finally she had an announcement of her own- that it was time to proceed to the base hospital.

So as calmly as I could I loaded our necessities in our car and drove to Irwin Army Hospital. Remembering that it was Pay Day Night at Fort Riley which caused some soldiers to run havoc in downtown Junction City which lies in the most direct route to the hospital, I plotted an alternate route, I drove east on Interstate 70. Crossing the bridge over the Republican River I hit a bump that nearly caused Karen to give birth right then and there. We entered the base by way of the army airfield thus avoiding the Pay Day mischief and the hospital was nearly in sight.

Sure enough, the maternity nurses confirmed Karen’s diagnosis and she was admitted. Our baby girl arrived after dawn on a beautiful sun-filled hot day. We named Jennifer Jane which means “God’s chosen fair lady.” The name in part honors Karen’s mother Genevieve since Jennifer is deflective of Genevieve. Her childhood nickname became JJ and very briefly Jenny Jane and then back to JJ, As she grew older, she was called Jennifer and then simply Jen.

After three days I brought Karen and Jennifer home. Two worries filled our minds the remainder of the year, First, we were concerned by the phenomenon among infants called Sudden Death Syndrome. When JJ was asleep, we often poked her to ensure she was alive; the trick here was to poke her without awakening her, Our second concern was the colic JJ developed. I rocked JJ seemingly for hours on end to try to relieve her pain which would allow her (and her parents) to sleep. Yet a highlight of JJ’s first months was when Karen and I dedicated our baby girl to our Lord Jesus Christ and dedicated ourselves to be model Christian parents during the morning worship service one Sunday at First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City.

Days turned into weeks into months and soon it was the summer of 1975. We celebrated JJ’s first birthday in a Junction City park and soon thereafter I received orders to report to a unit in Germany. I reported to my unit on my 25^th birthday and after a few days I became so lonesome to see Karen and JJ I began to circumvent military protocols to get them to Germany sooner than later. Somehow it worked and while the details are foggy, I met them at the Frankfurt airport, and we settled in our apartment on the German economy until we could move into base housing some months later.

JJ inadvertently revealed part of her character to me at our base preschool in Germany. When I picked her up early one day, she was eating lunch, so I waited and watched while she ate, not noticing me- but I noticed how determined and focused she looked while eating her spaghetti.

Her determination could also lead to stubborn streaks. Once at an army unit party she was going to drink some refreshment referred to as” cannon blast” (“cannon” because ours was a field artillery unit and “blast”- well I will leave that word to your imagination!). Instead of the regular juice- JJ was insistent on tasting the cannon blast so I had to pry each little finger of her hand off the cup she was holding.

Then I served on the staffs of four churches, primarily as a Christian educator. I was very busy with my career ups and downs, nevertheless I made time to teach Jennifer to swim and to drive, and I coached her in soccer. Karen taught Jennifer cooking and sewing skills as well.

Jennifer came home one day when she was a fifth or sixth grader, and told her mother and me that she wanted to be a crossing guard at her school in the DC suburbs of Virginia- thinking it too dangerous we told her no- however, she persisted; finally one day I asked her why she wanted to be a crossing guard- she replied in no uncertain terms “Leadership!”- that sounded good enough for me so we relented (years later she told me that she gave the answer that she thought would move me to change my mind).

I also had the privilege of baptizing JJ. One Wednesday evening at our church in Glen Burnie Maryland her Mission Friends lesson was about helping others in Christ’s name so she thought the best way to help people was by becoming a Christian, which she did at the age of eight,

After Jennifer graduated from Shawnee Mission North High School where she was a scholar, star debater, and soccer player, she entered William Jewell College in nearby Liberty Missouri. At Jewell she majored in political science and international relations, and at Jewell Jennifer became lifelong friends with Cindy, Javette, Amy, Heather, and Janna who were steadfast with her major transitions in her life and death. Jen also traveled throughout Europe.

After Jewell Jennifer entered Baylor University in Waco Texas to engage in graduate study in international relations and then she returned to our then-home in Overland Park to enter the world of work. Highlights of her employment included being a research analyst at a major Kansas City law firm, assistant general counsel in a communications company, and editorial assistant to a fashion blogger. Jen also received her MBA from Rockhurst University.

When she met Kerry Classen at a community Bible study, a new love was in the air, and I had the honor of co-officiating their wedding. The rest, they say, is history as Jen became a devoted and loving wife and partner to Kerry, and mother to Nicholas and Caroline. Karen and I continued to be her “parental unit” (a term Jen first applied to us when she was a teenager) and while our relationship became more adult-to-adult, she would remain our first-born “baby girl.”

Then on July 13, 2022, we received a reality check, a punch to the gut. Jen at age 48 had been diagnosed with brain cancer. The next year and a half were a rollercoaster ride in a fog. Surgeries and treatments at the University of Kansas and at Stanford University provided temporary hope. Karen and I shared our pain with our church members; they offered up prayers, words of encouragement, and actions which ministered to us. I enlisted a larger group of partners; in the end we had old friends, new friends, old colleagues, Johnson County suburbanites, Oklahoma farmers, immigrants from Myanmar, and theologians, among others, praying for Jen.

And I told God that this situation was unnatural- children should bury their parents not parents burying their children. But God showed me in no uncertain terms first through the story of Job and later in the prophet Habakkuk in the Hebrew Scriptures that He, not me, defines reality. God also comforted me with a bit of Hebrew wisdom found in Psalm 46.

On Sunday, Mach 17, 2024, Karen and I sat with Jen so Kerry and Caroline could attend church. We brought her an Egg McMuffin sandwich, hashbrowns, and a large Coca-Cola for breakfast which she always enjoyed. We watched our church’s worship service on television followed by two Hallmark-type romance movies. Jen was lucid, engaged in conversation, and followed the movies’ dialogue very well. One week later she passed away.

By Thursday, March 21, Jen was confined to a hospice bed in her dining room due to her rapid physical decline. Several times that day I watched over her and we had several very brief discussions and our talk revealed important aspects of her character. Our initial discussion involved me holding her hand and saying, “We’ve been through a lot together, haven’t we?” To which she replied, “Yes, we have.”

Then after a brief time, Karen was returning from an errand after buying Jen some much needed items. I simply told Jen, “You know, your mother loves you very much.” She simply replied, “Yes, I know.” And finally, Jen questioned me with, “What’s wrong?” when she apparently saw me with a worried look. Not wanting to alarm or upset her, I replied, “Nothing, I was just thinking.”

Jen’s character revealed in those three conversational snippets showed that she had forgiven (or had forgotten) my mishaps, follies, and errors I had made as her father, and that she loved me in spite of myself. That she was devoted to her mother, her nurturer of our family who had known her at least nine months before anyone else. That she cared about others in spite of her own pain and suffering. And during our talks that solemn day Jen had a smile, a faint smile, but a smile, nonetheless. Hers was not a smile of the clueless nor one of deceit; Jen’s smile was a confident reminder about earthly life and her soon-to-be resurrection. She was so brave and courageous!

Death claimed our beloved darling daughter shortly thereafter at 1:45 am on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024, a few months shy of her fiftieth birthday. Jennifer Jane had lived up to her name and indeed was the divine gift to us for nearly a half century. Yet death’s grip was very short lived- as soon as she was released from her temporal bonds Jen was, and still is, in the presence of the Christ and the Great Cloud of Witnesses who had gone on before her and cheered her on as she grew into God’s Chosen Fair Lady. And we shall see her again!

 

 

HABAKKUK AND THE PROBLEM OF HISTORY

 I confess that I have my favorite parts of the Bible- the Chrsitian New Testament in its entirety and the Prophets and the Wisdom Literature in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Prophetic Literature has two parts- the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. This division is baed on the size of contribution each prophet made and not upon the importance of the contribution or the prophet himself. One of the minor prophets is Habakkuk and he has some vital words of hope as he wrestles with the problem of history.

 

The regular reader of my blog essays will remember that I I subscribe to the MCN theory of history- i.e., history is messy, contradictory, and nuanced. The historic context in which Habakkuk lived and prophesied was certainly “MCNed” as he grappled with the direction God was taking Israel in the midst of the chaos surrounding him.

 

I offer a second confession in that it is not my original thinking that the prophet Habakkuk not only lives and prophesizes within a historical context but also develops a theology of history that is as pertinent today as it was the Babylonian empire conquered Jerusalem. It was in my recent reading of N.T. Wright and Michael Bird’s newly published Jesus and the Powers that I first was introduced to the idea of “Habakkuk and the problem of history”-

 

“Habakkuk understood how empires made history, a history made of desolation wrought by kings who believed they were walking and talking icons of their own deities. Yet the God of the covenant, while he might use these kings for his own purposes, would never let them have it all their own way.” (p. 12)

 

In their brief discussion of Habakkuk Wright and Bird footnoted the book From Fear to Faith: Studies in the Book of Habakkuk and the Problem of History authored by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. First published in 1953, the book summarizes the problem of history as understood by both Habakkuk and, if we are truthful, indeed to  ourselves-

 

“Is God really in control? Devastating floods, famines, and earthquakes are everyday occurrences. Harsh military conflicts flare up momentarily. Lawlessness seems to be everywhere. There is a general moral and political decline. It seems as if evil is having its day. Why does God allow it? These conditions troubled and perplexed the prophet Habakkuk.” (back cover)

 

Habakkuk’s message begins in a vision from the Lord (1:1) and has the following parts:

 

Habakkuk’s First Complaint (1:2-4): The prophet petitions God once again for help to end violence, injustice, wrongdoing, destruction, strife, conflict, and wickedness.

 

The Lord’s Answer (1:5-11): God tells Habakkuk that God is raising up the ruthless and arrogant Babylonians to sweep in and conquer Judea.

 

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint (1:12-17): The prophet acknowledges God’s power and purity, yet asks how long God will tolerate the treacherous and wicked while the righteous suffer. In the meantime, while waiting for God’s answer, Habakkuk will station himself on the ramparts to stand watch.

 

The Lord’s Answer (2:1-20): God declares that an appointed time will occur for judgement against the puffed-up enemy, the greedy, those who become wealthy through extortion, those who plunder, the unjust, those who shed innocent blood, and those who worship idols, In the meantime, the righteous are to live by faith.

 

Habakkuk’s Prayer (3:1-19): The prophet remembers the amazing works of the Lord and is filled with awe. And even though troubles and disasters befall the people, he will rejoice in God because God is his salvation and his strength.

 

Thus, the problem of history is a human weakness because of our finite memories and our limited sense of history’s direction. And the secular mind fanaticizes about the “right side of history” and the “moral arc of history” the righteous mind will follow Habakkuk’s example and live by faith throughout the days of our lives rejoicing in the God of our salvation and strength in spite of what comes our way. That is indeed history well lived.